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Dickey’s worst day, best day bookend cardiac rehab journey
Already keenly aware of what was the worst day of her life, a Greencastle teacher recently had what she describes as the best day of her life.
On Friday, Courtney Dickey was the guest of honor at Putnam County Hospital’s Wear Red Breakfast, a testament to the recovery she’s made from a massive heart attack in the aftermath of her husband’s sudden death in September 2020.
For as well received as Dickey and the video of her testimonial may have been, the breakfast at Tiger Pointe Country Club was not the highlight of her day.
That came shortly thereafter, when Dickey arrived back at Tzouanakis Intermediate School. Upon entering her classroom pod, she found her class and that of fellow teacher Katie Evens waiting to surprise her, all decked out in the same “I wear red to fight heart disease” shirts that had been distributed to the 160 attendees at that morning’s breakfast, compliments of PCH.
Flanked by daughter Emily Dickey, a fourth-grade teacher, Courtney stopped, smiled and then covered her mouth, frozen for a moment as she was overcome by the moment.
Slowly making her way on into common area of the pod, Dickey let the students know how much it meant to her.
“I’ve had a really great day, but I have to say this has been the best part so far,” Dickey said.
Along with the students were Evens, various other Tzouanakis personnel and administrators and Brooke Trissel and Chelsea Beasley of PCH.
Any sort of honor or happy surprise that comes Dickey’s way is well deserved after what she’s been through.
During her video testimonial, she explained how, in the aftermath of Andy’s death, she began to feel worse — physically as well as emotionally.
“That was the worst moment of my life, ever,” Dickey said. “As the evening went on, I was having pain in my chest. I kept holding it, and they kept asking me if I was OK.”
She was later checked out by medics, but the EKG showed no issue.
However, when she laid down early the next morning, something was clearly wrong between a crackling in her chest and a struggle to breathe.”
Upon arrival at the hospital, Dickey’s daughter was told she was having a heart attack and that she should call her sisters immediately “basically to tell me goodbye.”
But Dickey pulled through, having suffered a tokotsubo cardiomyopathy, which basically means a stress hormone had squeezed her heart.
The remainder of Dickey’s video was dedicated to her recovery process with Putnam Cardiopulmonary Rehab at PCH.
“I was welcomed by four of the most beautiful ladies,” Dickey said of her first day. “They made me feel welcome, made me feel that I was going to be OK.”
Over the course of the next year, Dickey went from barely being able to walk on a treadmill for six minutes to “almost running uphill” on the same machine.
“I have to say the exercise helped my body, but those ladies helped my mind and my heart,” Dickey recounted. “They were my cheerleaders. They were my encouragement every time. They were the ones that made me want to come ... because it was hard. I won’t lie -- it was really hard.”
In the time since, she’s gotten back to teaching and enjoying life, even taking separate trips to Hawaii and Alaska over the last year.
“I didn’t know what life on the other side of this heart attack was going to look like for me,” Dickey said. “Would I be able to do the things I used to do? Would I be able to teach school and have an income? There were just a lot of ‘what ifs’ in my mind. They were just very reassuring to me and made me know it was going to be OK. And it is. I’m living a full life, and I’m back to teaching school and doing all the things I love.
“I would never have imagined I would be at this point a couple of years ago,” she added.
While Dickey was the emotional center of the Wear Red Breakfast, attendees also had the chance to hear an informative and often humorous talk from Dr. Louis Janeira of Franciscan Physician Network, as well as from Putnam Cardiopulmonary Rehab co-managers Anne Wilkey and Nancy Kittle, two of the women Dickey credits with much of her rehab.
Wilkey and Kittle gave a short presentation of the importance of calling 911 and a quick demonstration on CPR. They host classes for local educators to keep CPR certifications up to date.
Coming up on March 4, they will conduct a class for county coaches, including youth, high school and middle school individuals.
Dickey’s video followed, after which she received two dozen roses and two standing ovations from the gathered crowd.
Then it was on to the surprise awaiting her. Aside from Dickey’s testimonial, it may have been the most remarkable part of the morning — that dozens of fifth-graders were in on a secret and managed to keep it from their teacher.
“They didn’t say one thing about it,” Dickey said.
